This is still preventing me from evaluating the essentials role, from the lack of search results either the issue is unique to my environment, or there are very few installs of the essentials role. Maybe it we be resolved in the general availability build...
In the meantime if anyone has any clues as to what might be happening let me know ! Alistair

Same thing here - but when trying to integrate with on premise Exchange.

The only thing I did that might be considered out of the norm was to cancel the Essentials configuration wizard when Windows was first installed and then DC promo it to an existing domain ...... as part of a test migration from SBS2008. This was one
of the procedures detailed on an MS article and about 95% of our customers will be in this scenario so I'd like to think there will be a fix for this.............

We had an SBS 2011 server. We had already moved sharepoint onto a separate server and Exchange to online, so when the server broke it was retired. We already have other DC's so the FSMO roles were seized and everything is working.

My suspicion is that there is some remnant of the original SBS sever (meta data has been cleansed) which the Essentials Role is detecting and then complaining about as it needs to be the only Essentials server.

So, anyone know what the role is checking for, or where the SBS 2011 AD entries might be?

Nor mine, which was a clean SBS2008 test environment which I then joined the Essentials server to. I made it into a DC then decommissioned the SBS and removed it. The next step in the article I read was to complete the (hitherto cancelled) Essentials
wizard - which went OK. It is only when you try to do anything further that you get this error....in my case, trying to add an on premise exchange server.

That really would not be good! There must be plenty situations where there is a second DC. What about adding to an existing domain? The role would have to be on the only DC?? Why then gave the role? Interesting to see the reply!

This Release Notes refers to "Single Domain Environment", which is the limitation of Essentials (as role or SKU).

Please note that "Single Domain Environment" is not the same thing as "Single Domain Controller
Environment".

Services Integration Features like "Integrate with Azure Active Directory", "Integrate with Office 365", "Integrate with Windows Intune" and "Integrate with Exchange", they are supported in
Single Domain Controller environment only.

Services Integration Features like "Integrate with Azure Active Directory", "Integrate with Office 365", "Integrate with Windows Intune" and "Integrate with Exchange", they are supported in
Single Domain Controller environment only.

From your description, there seem to be multiple DCs in your environment, which should be the root cause.

If you can deploy into an existing AD environment then and have the server on which essentials is deployed be a DC then there will be more than one DC.

"You can also deploy Windows Server Essentials if your business already
has an existing Active Directory environment. In addition, you can also
choose if you want to deploy Windows Server Essentials as a domain
controller."

The Windows Server Essentials Experience Server Role
In
the Standard and Datacenter editions of Windows Server 2012 R2,
administrators who want the full features and functionality of Windows
Server Essentials will be able to add a new server role to the system
called the Windows Server Essentials Experience.

The
Windows Server Essentials Experience server role enables all the
features and dependent services and roles of the Windows Server 2012 R2
Essentials edition, without the locks and limits that are in place for
the edition. Enabling or disabling the Windows Server Essentials
Experience role is as simple as turning it on or off in Server Manager.

This
change enables not only an easy upgrade path for small businesses who
want more flexibility, but also offers the following benefits:

The
flexibility to implement a Standard or Datacenter edition server
running the Windows Server Essentials Experience role as a domain member
rather than as the root domain controller.

The ability to
add the Windows Server Essentials Experience to an existing domain
environment that already has multiple servers running Windows Server.

Running
the Standard or Datacenter editions gives you all the features and
licensing rights of those operating systems (such as expanded
virtualization rights and larger hardware configurations).

Issue is that when all's said and done, the 'Integrate with...Exchange etc' fails to work
after you complete the Essentials Wizard. As soon as you remove any replicas (by DCPROMOing any old DC's out) then it works - so clearly doesn't want to wok with more than one DC.

If that really is the case, then there is no upgrade path from SBS2011 to Essentials 2012R2 (role or Server) for domains with more than one DC. Without the services its pretty useless! Having more than one DC was always supported in SBS.

Since I can't seem to get anyone from Microsoft to post here, I built a R2 Essentials and added a second DC. As guys have noted, as long as there is a second DC, those wizards barf. Will test again with Essentials role/two DCs.

And can confirm that with Essentials as a role, it also does not like two domain controllers. Remove DCs to get it back to one and the wizards will work. The integration pieces will continue to function if there is a second DC added later,
but in order to run the initial wizard, you need a single DC.

:-( Sorry to confirm your findings. I don't know what the long term plans are to fix this.

There is another problem with this too: If you manage to get it up and running with only 1 DC, you can never add an additional DC. If you do, the "Change the Office 365 administrator account" command in the dashboard will give you the same error. This is
problematic, as the password policy set by essentials defaults to expiring passwords. You will from time to time therefore need to update the admin account.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013 11:06 AM

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